WHS - Warehouse Group

[percy]

Off topic, I don't know about others but I have had enough of Briscoes with their so called sales. Even at their 50% off sales similar items are usually substantially cheaper at K Mart or The Warehouse. I think the tipping point for me was when I looked for a new cheap vacuum cleaner for my office and Briscoes regular price for some cheap looking Chinese made vacuum was $600. Even at 50% off it was a complete rort. Honestly, I haven't been back since then. That Briscoes lady customers identify with doesn't look quite so fresh these days anymore either.

I think in tougher times people are looking for genuine value and start to see through retailers that engage in widespread value charades. My 2 cents on Briscoes.

You will surprise yourself at Noel Leemings.
Nilfisk Meteor was a great buy a couple of years ago,and even cheaper with my Gold Card.

[winner69]

Don’t think The PM will be shopping at The Warehouse

She’s angry ...again ...wasn’t she angry when they tried to claim to be exempt from Level 3 or 4

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/...jacinda-ardern

Will this ‘restructure’ be any more successful than past efforts ....doubt it for a broken business model that The Warehouse is ...Noel Leeming OK though

[Sideshow Bob]

Off topic, I don't know about others but I have had enough of Briscoes with their so called sales. Even at their 50% off sales similar items are usually substantially cheaper at K Mart or The Warehouse. I think the tipping point for me was when I looked for a new cheap vacuum cleaner for my office and Briscoes regular price for some cheap looking Chinese made vacuum was $600. Even at 50% off it was a complete rort. Honestly, I haven't been back since then. That Briscoes lady customers identify with doesn't look quite so fresh these days anymore either.

I think in tougher times people are looking for genuine value and start to see through retailers that engage in widespread value charades. My 2 cents on Briscoes.

Anyone should know these days that Briscoes sales aren't necessarily value - or prices are substantially higher to begin with. Hate to think how much of their business is done during a sale.

Electrical brands are easy to compare - other stuff not quite so widespread distribution or as strongly brand identified. But for instance we bought a pressure cooker recently - over $300 in Briscoes, $119 in Harvey's on promo (and we got Airpoint dollars! ).

Lucky you don't live in Canterbury Mr B - they'd lynch you for saying Tammy doesn't look quite so fresh these days!

[CD_CHCH]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/121...-1080-job-cuts

"Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she's "angry" at the Warehouse Group for proposing to cut up to 1080 jobs"

And this coming from the person leading the govt that is charging our national carrier an exorbitant interest rate so they can survive, and using foreign overseas companies for Kiwirail work.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12337516

She has no moral high ground on this one - perhaps this is her idea of 'being kind'

Before criticising others perhaps she should be taking a long hard look at the govt's string of broken promises and wasted money.

(Not saying that any of the others are any better - as the old saying goes "how do you know when a politician is lying?" - Their lips are moving)

[Zaphod]

A perhaps very politically naïve comment to make, that only reinforces the disconnect between her government and the business community.

The reality is that the Warehouse like all retailers, is under significant fiscal pressure due to consumer spending constraints brought on by our response to the pandemic. The PM knows this. A better tactic would have been to acknowledge the economic reality the pandemic has caused (avoid blaming the response of the government), and pointing out what support arrangements are available, and encourage the Warehouse to engage further with the government. A missed opportunity.

[Zaphod]

Ordered several items over the last 4 weeks from the ware house (some winter basics plus some IT stuff) and received everything within the promised time frame. 2 parcels took 5 days, one took 7 days and one 11 days. Not sure, though why they split 2 orders into 4 parcels ... I think they could have saved some postage.

From a customer perspective no reason to complain.

Many single online Warehouse orders were split amongst multiple stores. Briscoes did the same, with one product we ordered arriving from Whakatane.

[Zaphod]

In the cheap and cheerful retail space, I think Kmart usurped the Warehouse sometime ago.

Not specific to Kmart or the Warehouse: Consumers are increasingly shopping based on price, and it's a race to the bottom in terms of quality and profits. Wholesalers (and the labour that produce the products) are being severely squeezed; the big box retailers are maintaining higher margins than ever before. We have created a monster.

[Rep]

The PM is 'angry' about the job losses at TWG especially after it claimed $52m in wage subsidy.

If you consider that the wage subsidy really kicked in for TWG from March 25th then the twelve weeks will expire next week. The indications are that even with the bar being lowered from 50% to 40% that TWG won't be able to receive the extended wage subsidy of another 8 weeks. For some workers, the wage subsidy may have covered most of the wage bill but a lot of workers even at 80%, employers were still paying out the majority of the pay with diminished or no revenue to pay for that cash outflow. This is going to be exacerbated now - stores that were marginal pre-COVID could well be underwater with the economic contraction that we face into.

Consumer habits have changed - online shopping which was always a threat, is now a bigger part of our lives and if international air freight gets sufficient capacity and the cost of freight comes down with competition then it's going to be even bigger.

Lots of us aren't going to the office. The CBD shopping strips don't have tourists walking by, international and domestic tertiary students walking by, office workers walking by.
The reality is lots of those retail businesses that rely on passing foot traffic will shutter for good in the next few months (if they haven't already). It won't be there fault but the owners will come to the conclusion that they can't keep paying the bills anymore to survive.

What about retail property landlords? No rent for several weeks and potentially a bunch of tenants who will have to default on their leases. Then having to deal with vacancies and big inducements to find replacement tenants - they've been left out in the cold so far. A lot of these folk are retired who were looking for passive incomes?

Will the PM rail @ Max Fashions for closing about a quarter of its retail footprint? Will she rail at retail SMEs that have to throw in the towel and cast off workers? How about Tourism operators, restaurants, cafes?
Are they not part of the community? Is Air NZ not part of the community, for the community and is majority Government owned but will cast off more workers to survive?

The reality is TWG is trying to survive right now. So are many businesses - there's over 12,000 reported to date but that doesn't include all of the SMEs or unlisted businesses out there.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300...of-the-iceberg

The country is rightly proud and proud of the PM to get us to no active cases. Now's the really hard part which is the tab we are going to have to pick up together in the next decade or so.

[Zaphod]

Will the PM rail @ Max Fashions for closing about a quarter of its retail footprint? Will she rail at retail SMEs that have to throw in the towel and cast off workers? How about Tourism operators, restaurants, cafes?
Are they not part of the community? Is Air NZ not part of the community, for the community and is majority Government owned but will cast off more workers to survive?

The reality is TWG is trying to survive right now. So are many businesses - there's over 12,000 reported to date but that doesn't include all of the SMEs or unlisted businesses out there.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300...of-the-iceberg

The country is rightly proud and proud of the PM to get us to no active cases. Now's the really hard part which is the tab we are going to have to pick up together in the next decade or so.

Yes - locking down an isolated and small country is the relatively easy part, but staving off a depression and rebuilding the economy is going to be exceptionally difficult for any party, especially Labour in its current form.

[Balance]

Yes - locking down an isolated and small country is the relatively easy part, but staving off a depression and rebuilding the economy is going to be exceptionally difficult for any party, especially Labour in its current form.

How many posters here have confidence that this government can manage the economy out of the nose diving recession in the next 3 years?